Bill Ferriter has written a post, including samples, of one-page “unit overview sheets” that he gives to students at the beginning of a course of study and revisits each day.
It looks intriguing, and helpful.
We provide a “Word Splash” sheet at the beginning of our ninth-grade units and periodically reflect on them and make additions, but it’s not the same as Bill’s sheets.
Do you have your own variations? And, if so, how do they work?
(by the way, Bill has also posted about another sheet he has students use for self-assessment)
Hey Larry,
Glad that this sheet caught your attention. What’s blown me away is how much my kids like the sheet.
I did a survey last week asking students to rate their levels of agreement with simple statements like, “I find our unit overview sheets useful” and “I like using our unit overview sheets to reflect on what I know.”
For every question, almost 90% of my students strongly agreed.
I’ve been using unit overview sheets for years, but I’ve never actually asked the students how they felt about them. I’m glad that I did this year, though, because it reinforced to me that our kids really DO need a clear vision of what it is that they are trying to learn and really DO like to be able to assess their own progress towards learning key content.
If you’re interested in seeing what the kids had to say about the unit overview sheets, click on the second document in that post. It’s got a summary of student thoughts on all the self-assessment stuff that we do in class. Their voices are powerful.
Hope you’re well, by the way!
Bill